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October brings with it cool weather and seasonal bliss. The holiday season is right around the corner. On the softball diamonds though, things are heating up.
The area high schools open up sectional playoff play this Friday and the key to moving on may lie in the right arms of three pitchers.
Newton has had an up and down year to date but did enough to earn a fourth seed at the Class AAAAA South Sectional playoffs at Lovejoy Regional Park in Hampton. The Lady Rams will open play Friday at 4 p.m. against Houston County.
It’s been a feast or famine type season for Newton. When the Lady Rams are hitting, they score in bunches. But like most fast-pitch softball teams, when they run into a dominant pitcher, they struggle to score.
One constant has been Holly Springer. The sophomore sensation, who returned as Newton’s only starter from last year’s squad, has pitched well all year. Coach Jason LaChappelle said coming into the year he was going to rely heavily on his No. 1 starter and he’s stuck to his word. Springer has seen action in the majority of Newton’s games and continues to improve her game.
From the opening of the season, Springer earned three wins at the Griffin Diamond Classic. Even when the Lady Rams stumbled a bit down the stretch, Springer’s pitching kept her team in ball games, especially in back-to-back losses of 1-0 and 2-0 to Greenbrier and Grayson respectively.
Springer will have to keep pitching well if the Lady Rams are to advance past the sectionals. Markea Sheppard and Misha Roberts have been solid at the plate, and defensively, Newton boasts a stingy group with Chaconna Marks anchoring the defense. The Lady Rams will need to get production from their tables setters, Roberts and Sheppard, and Marks and Haleigh Higgins will need to drive them in.
Newton isn’t the only team to struggle against dominating pitching. Alcovy knows first hand what a shut-down pitcher can do as Eastside’s Amanda Henderson no-hit the Lady Tigers and struck out 14 of 16 batters she faced in the season finale two weeks ago.
"Pitching is important in both softball and baseball," Alcovy coach Casey Bates said. "It is the first line of defense. Pitchers like Amanda [Henderson] are smart pitchers. She throws hard, has great command of all her pitches and she sticks with what is working that day, like she did with us. She makes the hitters swing the bats."
Bates said his team, which opens the Class AAAA South tournament Friday at 4 p.m. against Harlem at Lovejoy, has struggled against dominant pitching in large part to discipline or lack there of.
"If the hitters cannot make adjustments, then they are in for a long game with a pitcher like her [Henderson]," he said. "She is a strikeout pitcher, but at the same time, a pitcher that is always in command of her pitches."Fortunately for the Lady Tigers, they have a big time pitcher of their own. Dallas Hardin has been virtually unhitable at times this year but she enters the sectionals nursing a bum pitching thumb. Even so, she pitched in Alcovy’s tough extra-inning loss to Griffin last week. The loss relegated Alcovy to a No. 3 seed but Bates said he isn’t worried about his star pitcher.
The offense, on the other hand, will need to score some runs. In its three regional playoff games, two of them losses, Alcovy scored just four runs. Bates knows he will need his team to hit better in order to get past sectionals.
"I’m not worried about our offense at all," he said. "We said from the beginning of the year that we had to do two out of three things well to be successful. We have pitched well all year and played solid defense all year. That is why we are where we are at right now. Our offense has struggled at times, but at times been explosive. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and the offense will come around."
Ultimately it may come down to pitching for Alcovy. Hardin doesn’t have the velocity to strike out 15 batters but she pitches strikes and that gives her defense an opportunity to make plays behind her.
"Dallas does not strike out many batters, but at the same time, she does not give up many hits or walks," Bates said. "She will have a game where she strikes out 10 but the next three games she may only strike out two or three batters. What makes her so effective is her knowledge of how to pitch, her competitive spirit and she does not walk many batter and she throws a lot of strikes and a lot of different pitches. Over the next few years, she will develop into a strikeout pitcher as well as a finesse pitcher."
Eastside had the most success of the three schools and it starts and ends with Henderson’s dominance on the mound. Eastside’s ace is 22-5 so far this season with a minute, 0.75 ERA while recording a school record 284 strikeouts in 169 innings.
"Amanda is very effective because she has great speed and movement," Eastside coach Heather Wood said. "She has matured this year in throwing the right pitches with the right count on hitters. She also doesn't show a lot of emotion on the mound, and is very strong mentally which is intimidating to hitters."
Just how intimidating is the junior? Try 11.76 strikeouts per seven innings and seven straight shutouts to end the season intimidating. With that kind of control and velocity, she makes it hard for opposing teams to score.
"Pitching is what sets the tone in fast pitch softball," Wood said. "Good pitching usually beats good hitting. Having a pitcher like Amanda gives our team confidence to know that any team we face, we have an opportunity to win."
The Lady Eagles finished their season with the Region 8-AAA title Saturday after they shutout Oconee County 6-0. Oconee handed Eastside its only two losses in regular season 8-AAA play and Saturday’s win gave Wood’s team a No. 1 seed in the sectional tournament which begins Friday when the Lady Eagles take on Lumpkin County at 4 p.m. at Lanier Pointe softball complex in Gainesville.
Maybe more important is how the Lady Eagles have swung the bat of late. In the final seven games, Eastside has outscored its opponents 55-0. That kind of pitching and hitting give Wood plenty of optimism heading into Friday’s game.
"I feel like we are hitting at the right time in the season," she said. "I think our region tournament was a huge confidence builder for our hitters going into sectionals. I think we will see great pitching this weekend, but if we continue to work the count and be smart we will be able successful against any pitcher we see."
The numbers would suggest Eastside is peaking at the right time. But Wood knows the competition gets stiffer from here on out and the margin for error is all but gone.
"I think we have a good chance of making it to state this season, but we know its not going to be easy," Wood said. "There will be great teams (LFO, Ringgold, Oconee Co.) in sectionals, but we have to focus on our game and continue to hit the ball to be successful. It is key for us is to remain intense and focused throughout the tournament."
The three schools get their shots Friday. It’s a good bet the three aces will have a hand in how far they go.
